Coffee Adventures
by Thomas J
Summary: Just after "Resolutions", Chakotay drops by Janeway's Quarters for some dinner...


"Coffee Adventures" by Thomas J.  
  
Date started: 7th February 2003. Date Completed: 15th March 2003.  
  
Setting: The Starship Voyager.  
  
Takes place: Straight after "Resolutions", so just before "Basics".  
  
Disclaimer: Paramount owns everything related to Star Trek, I'm just borrowing them for this story.  
  
***  
  
Janeway looked up brusquely, her eyes falling on the mirror directly in front of her as the sound of her door chime made its way to her ears. "Computer, what time is it?"  
  
The computer replied immediately with its usual crisp, female voice. "The time is 1900 hours and 4 sec..."  
  
"That's quite all right," Janeway said quickly, giving herself another look in the mirror as she raised her hand to silence the computer. Although she knew the manoeuvre wouldn't do anything, she regularly used it during conversation and found herself doing it to the computer on occasion.  
  
She rushed into the living area of her quarters, avoiding the candlelit table, and arriving near the door. She was wearing her favourite dress: a cream outfit that looked as if it were draped over the wearer like a delicate piece of cloth, but was in fact secured tightly at the back by invisible means. She gave herself a final look in the mirror next to the doorway, feeling perfectly at home out of her Starfleet uniform after recently living without it on a planet, alone with Commander Chakotay. And here he was, coming here to visit her after their ordeal together. She felt Starfleet protocol melting away as she pushed her fingers against the door panel and the hard metal slid aside to reveal... him.  
  
She absorbed every detail in an instant: His smart grey suit, his polished black shoes, and the roses he was cradling in his arms. "I'm sorry, am I early?" he asked, grinning at the amazing woman before him.  
  
"What?" she asked, a grin threatening to gain control of her own face.  
  
He cast a quick look at the floor, giving himself enough time to wipe away the remains of his friendly smirk. "Why don't I go and put these in some water, while you..." he paused, thinking, "freshen up?"  
  
Smiling, he slipped past her and made his way towards the farthest corner of the room.  
  
Janeway, still puzzled slightly, glanced again at the mirror. Her dress, with which she had concerned herself with scrutinising moments ago, looked perfectly fine. Her hair however, was a somewhat different story.  
  
The phrase 'a few stray hairs' would have been a minor understatement in this case. Janeway's hair was tied back in an elegant ponytail, as she had planned, but half the hairs on the front of her head had decided that they wanted a new career being 20th Century television aerials.  
  
She looked away from the mirror and towards Chakotay. He had his back to her, and was busying himself putting the roses in a tall vase. She suspected that he was laughing quietly and doing his best to conceal it.  
  
She couldn't stop herself from smirking as she feigned anger by storming towards her bedroom. She heard Chakotay choke down a laugh and shook her head in amusement.  
  
Reaching her bedroom mirror, she sighed and focused upon the problem at hand. It was the same as thinking what to do when a warp core breach was imminent: she examined the problem from every angle, let all the data flow, and then combined the two to bring forth solutions.  
  
Fortunately the problem wasn't of such magnitude and didn't have that many solutions to consider. After a few short seconds, Janeway decided to replicate a wet spray.  
  
"Computer," she began, loud enough for the computer to hear, but not strident enough for Chakotay to notice, "one container of wet hair spray, class 4."  
  
There was a brief series of beeps from the replicator, then a whoosh as the can appeared. Positioning herself in front of the mirror, Janeway leaned forward with the now open can over her head. She sprayed gently at the hairs on the front of her head for a few seconds. Her hair still looked exactly the same, but Janeway had a look on her face that was the complete opposite of puzzlement.  
  
Carefully, she tempted the hairs down with a brush, and they moved easily, as if they were wet and had been straightened out. Within 10 seconds she had completed her objective and looked as immaculate as ever. She tidied away the tools she had used and was standing next to Chakotay a few moments later.  
  
"What kept you?" he asked, attempting to sound sincere.  
  
"A minor hitch," she replied, giving him an amused look, "fortunately my date for tonight didn't notice."  
  
"I'm sure that if he had, he wouldn't have minded one bit, he might even have been as entertained as you."  
  
"Shall we?" she said, breaking their pre-dinner banter and indicating the table that would soon seat their meal.  
  
"After you," he said nodding and pulling out a chair. "The most beautiful person should always sit down first at a meal."  
  
She waved away the complement, but sat nevertheless and let him slide her chair back towards the table. As soon as she was comfortably close to the table, she sighed. "The dinner. I have to get it from the replicator."  
  
She started to push the chair out again, but Chakotay laid a firm hand upon it. "You have to do no such thing," he said in a soft voice. "What was it we were having?"  
  
Janeway leaned her head back and smiled gratefully at her First Officer. "I thought that we could have a roast dinner."  
  
"Sounds nice," he agreed, "what file is it under?"  
  
"Traditional supplement 451."  
  
"I suppose it's not very healthy then?" he said, moving towards the replicator.  
  
"I'm afraid not," she smiled, watching him closely, "Mr. Paris was good enough to sample the nutritional version on my request. He rated it 'less enjoyable than Leola root stew.'"  
  
"Score 1 for Neelix," he chuckled, having reached the replicator. "Computer, two servings of traditional supplement 451."  
  
***  
  
"It was an interesting experience, I'll give it that," Chakotay said as his knife and fork landed on his plate with a clatter.  
  
Janeway looked at him brightly, her eating utensils already down on her empty plate. "Personally I have no desire to encounter a roast dinner ever again. That's the last time I ever listen to a holographic chef."  
  
Chakotay laughed as Janeway pulled out her chair and moved swiftly to the replicator. "I don't know about you," she started, "but I could do with something to wash that down with."  
  
"What did you have in mind?" he asked, even as she was entering the command.  
  
"What else?" she asked in a surprised tone, as she retrieved 2 cups of steaming black coffee from the depositary hatch.  
  
"Any other failsafe plans?" he inquired, walking over to the couch she was waiting on with the fuelling beverages.  
  
She looked up at him with a frown as he sat down and took a sip from his cup. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking about the first time I ever had coffee," she said apologetically.  
  
Chakotay raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. "Sounds like an interesting story," he said encouragingly, "if you'd care to tell."  
  
She took a sip from her own cup and sighed. "I needed that," she smiled, "and I'd be all too happy to tell," she paused lounging back slightly and looking him right in the eye, "if you're sitting comfortably..."  
  
Chakotay grinned and nodded and Janeway closed her eyes as she began her account.  
  
"It was when I was 14. My father," her voice faltered slightly at the painful memory, but Chakotay was quick to put a reassuring hand in hers.  
  
She cleared her throat of any lingering tears and started her sentence again. "My father wanted me to go to a Starfleet meeting. If I recall correctly it was for young hopefuls about my age at the time, wishing to go to the Academy in the future. He told me that there'd be so many different races and cultures there that even if I didn't want to listen to the speeches, I'd have plenty of people to talk to."  
  
Chakotay's eyes widened, but he said nothing, not wanting to interrupt his friend's story. Janeway continued, not noticing Chakotay's unusual facial expression as she stared at her swirling coffee. "I didn't want to go because I was going out to play tennis with my friends. I told him it had been arranged for weeks, I tried everything to get him to let me go, but he was adamant that I go with him. At the time I wasn't really interested in Starfleet, I wanted to be a tennis player."  
  
She gave a short laugh, thinking of her firm links to Starfleet now. "In the end he didn't let me go anywhere. He went off to the meeting alone and I was locked in at home, with my grandmother sleeping upstairs. I was in such a mood that I wanted to do anything to disobey him, so I went into his bedroom and used his replicator to replicate some coffee. He'd always forbidden me from drinking it, although he did all the time, but from the moment it touched my lips, I just couldn't stop drinking it. I drank at least 5 cups a day, and then some. Of course when he found out, he was furious and he attempted to stop me from drinking it ever again. He tried everything, but I always found a supply. So in the end, he just left me to it."  
  
She opened her eyes and lifted her cup up from her lap. "And this drink has been a part of me ever since."  
  
Chakotay almost clapped as Janeway reached the conclusion of her amazing tale, but Janeway had a quizzical look on her features as their eyes locked. Chakotay leapt into an explanation before she could speak.  
  
"Would I be right if I said that those conventions were only held every 10 years at the Academy?"  
  
"Unfortunately," she said smiling, "so I never did experience one."  
  
"Kathryn," he said, clasping her hands, "I almost went to the very same conference."  
  
Now the looks on both of their faces were a mixture of shock and surprise. "Care to recite your version?" she asked.  
  
"Gladly," he said, as smiles replaced the looks on both of their faces. "If you're sitting comfortably..."  
  
She placed a light punch on his knee and he began for real.  
  
"I wanted to go to the meeting to find out more about Starfleet. I knew virtually nothing about how to enter the Academy, or what the requirements were, but all my tribe were against it. They decided it was their decision all joined together and that I didn't have a say, so of course, I couldn't go. I ran off into the forest because I was so upset, I thought my family had respect for me to make my own decisions, but they didn't. I sat down defiantly deep in the forest, but like all stubborn youngsters, I got bored quickly. I looked around and a plan began to come together in my head. My tribe had always been against caffeine, believing that we should only draw the energy to keep our eyes open, from closing our eyes and going to sleep. I managed to make a cold and bitter coffee substitute, but it did the trick. Well it couldn't not with the amount I put inside me. I was awake all night."  
  
Janeway smiled and patted her First Officer proudly on the hand as he went on. "The next day I was so tired I could hardly lift my hand off the ground, but when my family found out what I'd done, they sent me out to chop up 50 logs and bring them back into the village on my own. By the end of that day, I'd learnt that my tribe really didn't like coffee, but that didn't stop me from drinking it the next day to keep me awake. Of course I didn't let them find out about that because I was too busy letting them be proud of me for being at full form again so quickly. But I didn't drink it again for years, the taste of cold coffee has to be the worse than... a roast dinner."  
  
"Well drink your warm coffee Commander, that's an order," said Janeway, stroking his free hand softly.  
  
"Yes Ma'am," he said, with a swift sideways nod.  
  
They stayed together in Janeway's quarters for many hours more, talking more on the road of conversation that they had been put on by Voyager's most replicated beverage: coffee.  
  
*** 


End file.
